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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23926276">A whole lot of Nothing</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireSoul/pseuds/FireSoul'>FireSoul</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Arrow (TV 2012)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, Long-Distance Relationship, Phone Calls &amp; Telephones</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 21:27:57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,534</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23926276</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireSoul/pseuds/FireSoul</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Laurel calls Dinah to report on a mission that has turned up nothing. It should be a quick, irritated call.</p>
<p>It isn't.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dinah Drake/Earth-2 Laurel Lance</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Arrowverse Under Quarantine</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A whole lot of Nothing</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingercanary/gifts">gingercanary</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Laurel hates away missions.</p>
<p>Ok, she doesn’t hate away missions as a concept. What she hates is that every time an away mission comes up it always ends up being her mission. It makes sense; she can’t argue that fact, which is possibly the most infuriating part of it all. Their little team Arrow whatever.0 thing is still new. Mia and Zoe aren’t ready yet, and someone has to stay behind to make sure they don’t do anything too stupid. True, she could petition for that to be her and for Dinah to go on these stupid missions, she could even argue that Dinah used to be an undercover cop and therefor she is perfectly suited for the blending in work that comes with away missions.</p>
<p>But, would she really rather be on babysitting duty? No, she wouldn’t.</p>
<p>What she would very much rather be doing is lounging on Dinah’s couch, sprawling herself across the space like a cat until Dinah decides it’s time to watch some terrible reality TV and kicks at her legs until she moves them. Yes, that would be ideal, certainly more so than freezing her ass off walking across a parking lot in the midst of an April night. April! In Star City it’s a livable sixty-five right now – she checked – and were she back there she might be lounging in shorts just to prove a point. But this is not Star City. This is some no name, nowhere town on the very edge of the East Coast and it is thirty-six degrees with a wind chill.</p>
<p>She really hates away missions.</p>
<p>With her hands already shoved as deep into her pockets at they’ll go Laurel fumbles her numb fingers around the surprisingly warm and sweaty metal of her key, apparently there is some warmth in her pockets, even if she can’t feel it. Bracing herself for the onslaught of more cold on her skin she take her hand from her pocket and puts the key in the lock, turning it and then checking her hip into the door to get it to open.</p>
<p>Inside her motel room is at least warm, even if that warmth does carry a faint scent of burning metal like the radiator isn’t used to being on even after what she can only assume has been sixty years of icy winters that start far too early in the year and end far, far too late.</p>
<p>Still, it wouldn’t surprise her if this room has only been used on a handful of occasions in all that time.</p>
<p>She’s sure she is the only out-of-town guest in this whole place. There are some other cars parked outside five of the eleven other rooms, but she’s gotten the feeling everyone else is either a junkie hiding from a parole officer, a disloyal spouse meeting with a “friend”, or very narrowly avoiding homelessness.</p>
<p>Leaning against the closed door Laurel balances one ankle on her opposite knee and starts untying her stiffly frozen sneaker, and then switches to do the other foot. With her shoes off she pads across the room to the little bathroom adjoined to the main room. The room and the bathroom are, at least, cleaner than she had thought they would be based on the exterior of the motel. Not that it is overly filthy on the outside, but the plastic coverings of the support beams are cracking and stained with dirt, and the walls are clearly in desperate need of a power washing.</p>
<p>She takes a quick shower to get the chill out of her bones then towels off, runs a quick brush through her hair, and heads back into the room to get in her pajamas.</p>
<p>Her pajamas which include a police academy t-shirt she stole from Dinah.</p>
<p>After debating between seeing what’s on TV and going right to bed she takes out her phone and scrolls to Dinah’s contact, then taps it and listens to the proceeding four rings before-</p>
<p>“Hello.”</p>
<p>“I am never traveling for work again.”</p>
<p>There’s a moment of quiet in which she can perfectly envision the amused smirk that must be on Dinah’s face, just as she’s sure Dinah can picture her scowl.</p>
<p>“Strike out?”</p>
<p>“Big strike out.” She deadpans, the edge of a snarl in her voice. “Do you know why all those sappy Christmas movies you like are set in New England? Because there is nothing here! Nothing! No mobsters, no super villains, no mad scientists, nothing!”</p>
<p>What comes through the line next is a genuine laugh and Laurel scowls even deeper, half tempted to add on how cold it is even at this time of year. Not even cold and wet, but dry and frigid and really, really irritating.</p>
<p>“That’s what makes it a perfect place for a crime lord to hide out.”</p>
<p>Laurel rolls her eyes and starts to adjusting herself, pushing her back off the bed’s headboard and getting onto her stomach on the mattress.</p>
<p>“Well there isn’t one hiding in this town.” She says, “Or any of the surrounding ones. It only takes fifteen minutes to cross this whole place so I’ve been to four different towns and guess what? A whole lot of nothing in every single one!”</p>
<p>“New England takes up thirteen states, I’m pretty sure the entire thing isn’t as small as the little corner you’re in.” Dinah mocks her and Laurel rolls her eyes.</p>
<p>“Then next time send me to a bigger part.”</p>
<p>“Sure, as long as the next target’s credit card pops up in a bigger part.”</p>
<p>“Has he canceled it yet?” She asks, slipping back into business mode.</p>
<p>If there is something here, she needs to catch it.</p>
<p>“Yeah.” Dinah answers, sounding disappointed.</p>
<p>She hums, not that they didn’t see this coming. Someone like Zsasz is too smart to use his credit card when he knows he’s being hunted. When they first got the alert they figured it was more likely than not he drove through here, “dropped” the card at a gas station, and let it be picked up by any random lowlife to throw them off his trail. The only reason she’d come to check it out was because they have no other leads, and while he is smart enough to stop using the card he might also be crazy enough to do it anyway just for the rush of playing them.</p>
<p>Either way, it’s useless now.</p>
<p>“So we’ve got nothing.” She laminates, and she can easily picture the disappointed pursed lips of Dinah on the other end.</p>
<p>The thought of that lingers in her mind maybe a little too long.</p>
<p>“Yeah.” Dinah huffs, “Looks like we sent you on a wild goose chase.”</p>
<p>“Well then we’re in luck, this place has plenty of those.”</p>
<p>Dinah laughs on the other end, and she laughs too, then it’s quiet.</p>
<p>Of course it’s quiet, that’s all she’s had for a report. Nothing. There is nothing here; they have nothing to go on, nothing.</p>
<p>She isn’t ready to hang up and stop talking about nothing.</p>
<p>“So what are you wearing?”</p>
<p>She’s almost disappointed she doesn’t hear even the smallest hint of Dinah choking, as she is surely sitting on the couch with a glass of wine by now. The line is quiet, no mocking or gasping for a dignified answer, and then it isn’t.</p>
<p>“Jeans and a shirt.” Dinah replies almost casually, evidently choosing to humor her for once, therefor wine is most definitely involved. “You?”</p>
<p>She hums, “Flannel pants, and one of your shirts.”</p>
<p>She raises her voice into a more suggestive register, to which she is sure Dinah is rolling her eyes.</p>
<p>“Any reason?”</p>
<p>She shrugs innocently, not that the action can be seen, or even is all that innocent for that matter.</p>
<p>“I just figured I was going to miss you while I was away.” She answers, pushing herself back up into a sitting position and stretching out stiff muscles; four nights on this sorry excuse for a mattress has not been a highlight of this trip.</p>
<p>“Well since there’s nothing out there you can get back to your usual routine of annoying me soon enough.”</p>
<p>“See? I knew you’d miss me.”</p>
<p>There is a small, breathy chuckle on the other end of the call and it makes her heart flutter.</p>
<p>Not that she’ll ever admit that.</p>
<p>“Goodnight Laurel, see you when you get back.”</p>
<p>It warms her heart a bit that she doesn’t say “call me”. It could be simply because she knows by now it’s pointless. Laurel rarely ever calls. She much prefers dropping by in person when she can. The apartment, the bar, the newly resurrected bunker, Queen Manor; wherever. If she isn’t actively engaged in not dying or some other vigilante business such as extracting information, she would rather debrief in person.</p>
<p>Dinah could have also forgone saying “call me” because she genuinely misses her.</p>
<p>Laurel will say it’s about 70-30 either way.</p>
<p>“Night, don’t let the bedbugs bite.”</p>
<p>With that she hangs up the phone and pulls her laptop from under the bed’s second pillow, opens it, and starts searching for the next flight to Star City.</p>
<p>If she’s lucky she can be on Dinah’s couch by morning.</p>
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